Is there a difference between happiness and joy? According to author of a new book called \u201cThe Joy Plan\u201d Kaia Roman says \u201chappiness is a cognitive experience based in the brain\u2019s cortex.\u00a0 It\u2019s a state of mind, which comes and goes easily.\u00a0 Happiness activates the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the brain\u2019s fight or flight response\u2014it feels exciting and stimulating to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Joy is different.\u00a0 \u201cJoy is a subconscious experience, an emotion based in the brain\u2019s limbic system. Joy activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls rest and relaxation\u2014it feels calming and soothing to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we discussed in earlier blogs, the limbic system is a network of connected structures near the middle of the brain linked within the central nervous system. This network works together to affect a wide range of behaviors including emotions, motivation, and memory. This system deals with instinctive or automatic behaviors, and has little, if anything, to do with conscious thought or will.<\/p>\n
This is the interesting connection, because the olfactory bulb is one of the structures of the limbic system and a very ancient part of the brain, the information captured by the sense of smell goes from the olfactory bulb to other structures of the limbic system.<\/p>\n
Since the emotion Joy also is deeply rooted into the limbic system, scent has a direct influence on Joy.<\/p>\n
Now Happiness is another story\u2026In a study at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands it was found that odors produced by our bodies can communicate happiness to others.<\/p>\n
The Utrecht researchers discovered that humans can tell whether a person is feeling happy through their smell.<\/p>\n
There is a phenomenon known as chemosignalling, where the odors produced by one\u2019s body can communicate happiness to others.<\/p>\n
Chemosignals is outside one\u2019s conscious awareness and can act as a medium through which people can become ’emotionally synchronised’,<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough chemosignalling had previously been shown to convey fear and disgust, little was known about how it related to positive emotions\u201d, the researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands concluded.<\/p>\n
The team collected the sweat of ‘sender’ participants in happy, fearful and neutral states using pads placed under their armpits while they watched different film clips.<\/p>\n
These pads were cut up, put into jars, and offered to a group of ‘receivers’ to smell, in a arbitrary order.<\/p>\n
They were hooked up to an electromyograph, which measures subtle differences in the activity of their facial muscles as a function of the emotion they were experiencing, induced by the sweat oders.<\/p>\n
\u201cExposure to sweat from happy senders elicited a happier facial expression than did sweat from fearful or neutral senders,” the researchers wrote in the journal Psychological Science.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur findings suggest that not only a negative state, but also a positive state (happiness) can be transferred by means of odours.”<\/p>\n
Scent is more than just a fragrance in a bottle, it continues to prove to be the most influential sense that we as human have.\u00a0 Perhaps we can create joy and happiness in a bottle?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is there a difference bet … <\/p>\n